Other Resources

Silva Method

The Silva Method (formerly Silva Mind Control) is a self-help program
which claims to teach one how to increase one's IQ, develop clairvoyance
and use the mind to heal the body and find some sort of god, among other things. The
program promises to teach you to "use the untapped power of your mind
to accomplish whatever you desire."*
The program is a hodgepodge put together by trial and error by José Silva
(1914-1999), an electronic repairman who had a voracious appetite for
literature in psychology, parapsychology, and
religion. He studied hypnosis, hoping to use
it to increase the IQ of his children, but became interested in developing
psychic abilities after he became convinced
that one of his daughters was clairvoyant.

According
to Silva,
he began using his method in 1944 on family and friends, but the program
that now goes by his name started in the 1960s. He called his program
"subjective education" and psychorientology, which he
defined as "educating the mind to function consciously within its own
psychic dimension....becoming aware of the enormity of human potential and
learning how to actualize this potential for the better of humanity."

The
instruction emphasizes positive thinking, visualization, meditation, and
self-hypnosis. One key element of the course "consists of 'visiting'
absent persons imagined by students and performing diagnoses on them"
(Randi 1995: 218). Silva became convinced that most personal and world problems
are due to "using only logical, intellectual, objective means to
correct problems."*
He claimed that "only 10 percent of humanity think with the right
brain hemisphere" as well, and these 10 percent are geniuses. The other 90
percent "use only the left brain hemisphere to think with. They do
both their thinking and acting with only the left brain hemisphere."

Silva
seems to have based his notions about the split-brain on the work of
Roger
Sperry and his colleagues. Silva, like many others who latched onto
this split-brain model, seems to have modified it to his own purposes and
beliefs. Much work has been done on the brain since Sperry. Without
putting too fine a point on it, nearly everything
Silva said about the brain is wrong. For a
more accurate picture of what scientists think about this split-brain distinction see
"Left
Brain Right Brain" by John McCrone (New Scientist, July 3,
1999). The truth is that nobody thinks or acts only with their left hemisphere unless the right
one is damaged or gone. In any case, it seems that Silva latched onto the
split-brain theory after he had developed his subjective education
program.

So, Silva not only had found the method
to make people smarter, healthier and happier, he also found out why his
method works. It is because he is training left-brain people to think with
their right brain as well.

Those who think and act with only the left
brain hemisphere get sick more often with psychosomatic health problems.
They are more accident prone. They make more mistakes. They are less
successful in life. When people think with the right brain hemisphere
and act with the left, the results are just the opposite: They are
healthier, less accident prone, make fewer mistakes, and are more
successful in life.*

How he knows these things is not clear. He claims that leftbrainers are
functioning at the beta wave level, while rightbrainers are at the alpha
wave level. Silva believed that alpha waves are significantly better
than beta waves. Actually, alpha waves increase in meditation and under
hypnosis, indicating lack of focus or visual stimulation, not some higher
brain activity. They are also produced by both sides of the brain. Beta waves are
evidence of concentration and heightened mental activity. If they are too
extreme, they can be indicative of stress. But no one in his or her right
mind should want to eliminate beta waves, unless you are trying to relax
or go to sleep, in which case you would want fewer beta waves and more
alpha waves if you want to relax and more delta waves if you want to
sleep.

Silva
claimed that right brain thinking

changes the sub-conscious into an
inner-conscious level. This allows people to also use the information
stored in the subconscious, consciously.

Right brain thinking — through intuition
(ESP) — connects us mentally with all information on this planet, so
that we can use this information to correct problems.

It also connects us with higher
intelligence, so that we can get the guidance and help that we need.

It is his claim that he found a gateway to the subconscious, the
psychic and to a "higher intelligence" (which he also refers to
as "Christ
consciousness") that sets the Silva Method apart from other
self-help programs such as Landmark Forum or Neuro-linguistic
Programming. The claim to be teaching a way to get connected to that
"higher intelligence" is what led some critics to think that the
method is actually a
religious movement.

Despite the fact that the Silva Method is
promoted with hyperbole worthy of FOX promoting the notion that
aliens have been autopsied by military doctors, it has many satisfied customers. Some claim
their backhand in tennis has improved, others claim they were able to quit
smoking or lose weight because of the Silva method. Still other say that
they are happier and healthier than they've ever been, thanks to the Silva
Method. It's been around for over forty years and claims to have
instructors in 107 countries. Weekend seminars run about $350
dollars [from
http://www.silvacourse.com/whatis.html].
(It should go without saying that since the founder is dead and
the program is taught in more than 100 countries, it is likely
that what is taught in each individual program is somewhat
unique and will not match exactly all the things I have outlined
above.)

For those who would like a cheaper method of improving your
mind, especially your problem solving, and who would like to become more
creative and effective as a thinker, I recommend Conceptual
Blockbusting by James L. Adams. It's a lot cheaper and it will
show you that there is a time for visualization and there is a time for
logic and language. Knowing when to use which is the key to solving
problems quickly and effectively. And it won't waste your time chasing
after supposed truths in your subconscious. Nor will it mislead you with
exercises for unleashing your psychic powers or for developing your Christ
consciousness, which are more likely to lead your mind to delusion than to
truth. Unfortunately, it is not likely to raise your IQ significantly or
help you quit smoking or lose weight. But it will offer you some practical
advice on how to use your mind more effectively.